7.26.2005

Another day, another half a billion dollars




G-Freak reminds me that it did choke up a bit this morning after I was sure Discovery was passed +73.618. I remember watching Challenger go that morning in school.

When Columbia went, weird things happended. About thirty minutes after confirmation, Mormons showed up at my door. Having friends working on Shuttle and Station in Houston, I was busily getting in touch with them to see how they were dealing. No time for visitors...I told the boys it was a bad time. I told one of them to go call his father. His dad works for Thiokol.

Here in Seattle, we have candle-light vigils when a dog gets run over. I went to the Museum of Flight and found no one and nothing. The guard told me there wouldn't be as there was a "private event" that night.

A few weeks later I was in Houston for work. The mass of balloons, cards, and photos at the gate was heartbreaking. A church in Houston I had attended only a few weeks prior to the launch was where some of the Astronauts went. Mission patches were selling on Ebay for over $100. I bought three at the museum for $4.25 each. I didn't sell mine. I even found a Challenger patch.

Not to dwell on the bad stuff, by far my best memory of Shuttles and space was actually seeing a launch. Absolutely indescribable...so I won't try.

2 Comments:

Blogger GFreak said...

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1:19 AM  
Blogger GFreak said...

One of my coworkers got back on Thursday morning and told me that he had been in Orlando for some convention. He then informed me, miffed, that the meeting that he was in was interrupted so that they could go outside to see the trail as Discovery accelerated to 17.6k mph.

Jerk.
I need to get to Florida for the next launch, if there is another one. Seems like we need to assume that every launch from now on could be the last, include the one last week.
That is, until the new CEV is built... I need to get on that team; if the NG/Boeing beats out L-M in Spring '06, me and the Mrs. might have to leave ABQ.

1:30 AM  

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